Your Child Today and Tomorrow

Your Child Today and Tomorrow

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Title: Your Child: Today and Tomorrow
Author: Sidonie Matzner Gruenberg
Release Date: February, 2006 [EBook #9917] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on October 31, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
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YOUR CHILD
TODAY AND TOMORROW

YOUR CHILD
TODAY AND TOMORROW
SOME PROBLEMS FOR PARENTS CONCERNING
PUNISHMENT REASONING LIES IDEALS AND AMBITIONS FEAR WORK AND PLAY IMAGINATION SOCIAL ACTIVITIES OBEDIENCE ADOLESCENCE WILL HEREDITY

By
SIDONIE MATZNER GRUENBERG

Second Revised Edition Enlarged
WITH A FORWARD BY BISHOP JOHN H. VINCENT Chancellor of Chautauqua Institution
WITH 12 ILLUSTRATIONS
1912, 1913, 1920

TO HER WHOSE DEVOTION AND UNTIRING EFFORT TOWARD AN INTELLIGENT UNDERSTANDING OF HER CHILDREN HAVE EVER BEEN AN INSPIRATION,
MY MOTHER
AND
TO MY CHILDREN
WHOSE CONTRIBUTION TOWARD MY EDUCATION HAS BEEN GREATER THAN THAT FROM ANY OTHER SOURCE, THIS LITTLE BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED.

PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION
In the sad years that have intervened since this book was published, we have all been impressed by the brilliant achievements of science in every department of practical life. But whereas the application of chemistry and electricity and biology might, perhaps, be safely left to the specialists, it seems to me that in a democracy it is essential for every single person to have a practical understanding of the workings of his own mind, and of his neighbor's. The understanding of human nature should not be left entirely in the hands of the specialists--it concerns all of us.
There is no better way for beginning the study of human nature than by following the unfolding of a spirit as it takes place before us in the growth of a child. I am humbly grateful of the assurances received from many quarters that these chapters have aided many parents and teachers in such study.
In the present edition I have made a number of slight changes to harmonize the reading with the results of later scientific studies; there is a new list of references and some new material in the chapter on sex education; and there is a new chapter suggesting the connection between the new psychology and the democratic ideals of human relations.
SIDONIE MATZNER GRUENBERG.
March, 1920.

PREFACE
In my efforts to learn something about the nature of the child, as a member of child-study groups, and in my own studies, I have found a large mass of material--accumulated by investigators into the psychology and the biology of childhood--which could be of great practical use to all concerned with the bringing up of children. In this little book I have tried to present some of this material in a form that will make it available for those who lack the time, or the special training or the opportunity to work it out for themselves. It has been my chief aim to show that a proper understanding of and sympathy with the various stages through which the child normally passes will do much toward making not only the child happier, but the task of the parents pleasanter. I am convinced that our failure to understand the workings of the child's mind is responsible for much of the friction between parents and children. We cannot expect the children, with their limited experience and their undeveloped intellect, to understand us; if we are to have harmony, intimacy and cooperation, these must come through the parents' successful efforts at understanding the children.
In speaking of the child always in the masculine, I have followed the custom of the specialists. It is of course to be understood that "he" sometimes means "she" and usually "he or she."
It has been impossible to refer at every point to the source of the material used. One unconsciously absorbs many ideas which one is unable later to trace to their sources; in addition to this, the material I have here presented has been worked over so that it is impossible